DE
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Terribly organized safari tour (2-day fly-in/out Safari from Dar)
Terribly organized and chaotic tour, contact persons gave out contradictory information, horrible game-drive, many useless phone calls, dirty sleeping room full of millipedes, lodge staff friendly and food OK, taxi driver dropped me off at the wrong terminal to get the flight and later at the wrong hotel after the tour. I made very good experiences with other tour operators in Tanzania, so that I need to recommend: Do NOT book at Selous Kinga Lodge. Further details below:
I requested an offer for the “2-day fly-in/out Safari from Dar” via Safaribookings.com and was directly linked to Edward and Martin from the lodge who helped me to clarify first questions regarding the tour and send me the offer for the tour.
As soon as I had placed the down payment the trouble began. Martin called me several times. I did not have the feeling, that there was a language problem during the calls, however, almost no useful information was exchanged.
Taxi Pickup to and from the hotels, where I stayed before and after the safari tour were organized by Martin. I sent him the names and addresses of the hotels via Whatsapp. The taxi driver to bring me to the airport dropped me off at the wrong terminal, so that I almost missed my flight to start the safari. The flight was booked by Martin, so that he should have communicated to the driver were to bring me.
The taxi diver to bring me back to the hotel dropped me off at the wrong hotel. When I gave him the right address, he did not know, where it was, although I shared hotel names and addresses with Martin already weeks in advance.
I made the down payment for the tour already three months before tour start. In January Martin explained me, that he could only give me the flight tickets 4 days before departure, because it would be last minute tickets and there were not enough booked passengers on the plane, yet. At the end, the plane was full of tourists and the other tourists told me, that they have received the confirmation for the tour and the flight several months in advance.
The flight with Auric air itself was a great experience: New planes, friendly staff, great views out off the plane.
Edward explained me via email, that it was fine to pay the rest payment directly at the lodge. However, Martin called me only a few days before tour start, that I need to pay everything upfront. Because of that, I needed to give the money in cash to the taxi driver, who brought me to the airport. He could not give me any receipt or payment confirmation.
The game drive in Nyerere Park was horrible. The driver drove at full speed in direction of the animals so that in most of the time we were only able to see the backs of frightened creatures. Bushes and small trees were destroyed when they were run over by the car. Out of the driving car it was generally difficult to take pictures and good positioned stops were very rare.
When I entered the sleeping room, there were around 10 millipedes with a length more than 100 mm inside. I pushed them out, but when I came in the next time the were new ones inside. I understand, that the Lodge is in the middle of the nature. But I slept in comparable locations, where the sleeping rooms, tents or cabins were very clean from the inside.
Do not book at Selous Kinga Lodge. Choose one of the good alternatives.
FR
35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Dishonest and threatening
Dishonest and threatening
Dishonest practices, threats to the police and extortion...agency to flee for better security.
We did a safari with Leboo from January 14 to 21, 2023. We had a big problem at the end: we had paid for our safari by bank transfer with the agreement of the agency. Our bank took their own fee from us, and their bank withheld a fee from them as well.
On an amount of 4000 dollars, their bank withheld 300 dollars.
On the last day, when taking us back, they asked us to pay that extra $300. We understand the bank charges, but we explain to them that we have already paid the entire sum on our side.
To avoid any problem, we suggest to step up to them and pay half/half their bank charges (in addition to the charges we have already paid on our side), they don't want to know anything and threaten to get us to the police and leave us locked in the car all night.
The agency will probably reply that we did not understand, but dialogue is impossible with them, especially with their accountant Joseph who refuses any proposal.
Dishonest practices, threats to the police and extortion...agency to flee for better security.
US
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Liar, Cheat, disreputable! Do not use under any circumstances
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. My husband and I booked through a great agency in Kenya who outsourced the Tanzania portion of our trip to Galloping Safaris. Walter, the owner, is a liar and a cheat. Read other reviews (wish we'd seen them in advance). We were in Tanzania for 5 days. He hired a 3rd party guide/driver for us, Athman was EXCELLENT. He saved the tour for us. However, Galloping Safaris (GS) had us pay our entry fee into the Serengeti park (even though we'd paid everything in advance). He said he was installing a new payment system and was having problems. We put the $642 USD on our credit card, assuming Walter would do as he said and pay us back when we finished the trip in Arusha. Walter with GS outright lied to us. We wasted an hour waiting for him to respond so we could even enter the park. Next, as we were exiting Ngorogoro crater, we were not allowed to leave the park since GS (Walter) had not paid the concession fee of approximately $100 USD. Our driver, Athman, convinced Walter to go to the bank to immediately transfer the $$. Another hour wasted there. Then we arrived at Tarangire Park, only to find out, once again, Walter at GS had not paid the entry fees. He then asked us again to pay $227 USD of our own $$. We had no choice but to pay, because where else would we go? Yup, another hour wasted sorting this out. Upon our final day, we drove back to Arusha, met with Walter, his wife Glory (a Director of the company) and someone who said they were his lawyer. He did not have the money to pay us back upon our arrival ($869 USD total), instead he wrote and signed what we thought was a legitimate legal agreement that he would wire us the money in 2 weeks. That date came and went, no $$$, more lies from Walter and now zero response from him. He should not be allowed to operate. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY under any circumstances.
DE
Not a trustworthy provider, better pick one of the many others.
I booked a one-day trip to Ngorongoro Crater with Erastus and we agreed that we would meet the day before to make the payment. We met and Erastus told me that he might not be able to arrange the trip for me because other guests had changed their plans. However, he personally, sitting in front of me, promised to make it work and told me not to worry about it.
The same day, at 8 pm, he informed me that I could not do the safari the next day (NB: I had only come to Arusha for one day to do exactly this safari). Despite me calling a bunch of other operators, it was too late to find an alternative for the next day. I ended up not being able to do the safari that I had come for.
Don't trust Erastus. My whole trip to Arusha was useless because he promised things he couldn't keep.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Avoid this company
Avoid this company! We booked and paid upfront for a 4 day safari during our honeymoon in Kenya, on the day of the safari we were told by the company that no accommodation or park fees had been booked for us and we were required to pay an additional $1500 for the safari to happen. When we refused we were told the safari would not be going ahead. A month on we have been promised a full refund, however on the date we were told the refund would be paid, we were asked to wait another month.
This experience soured our honeymoon and has left us thousands of pounds out of pocket. We would advise people to not use this company.
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Do not book with Edward! He is not honest.
I had a terrible experience with Edward. I had booked the 6 days Masai mara>Nakuru>Amboseli trip.
He was very accommodating when we planned things before the trip and then he went back on his word.
- I was subcontracted twice over to join a group safari. This is fine and what I expected. However, I did NOT expect that I would be sleeping in a different place than my group. So at the end of the game drive, I am dumped at once place and everyone else goes to another place.
- On Day 3, he promised me a game drive when we arrive in Nakuru. (After 5+ hours driving to Nakuru). He then told me it wasnt possible. So there was no game drive.
- Day 4, was supposed to be a morning game drive and then "later" drive to amboseli. Turns out that morning game drive means ~1-2 hours and the drive is cut short so you can drive 7+ hours to Amobseli. He was not clear in the itinerary that this is what it meant, I would not have agreed to spend a second day, all day driving.
We argued a lot and he would not back down. He would barely even apologize to me for lying about Day 3.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Thief, liar and conman
We booked with Forche Tours & Travel in Nuly last year. In the beginning, Fortune was accommodating and helpful however, as soon as he received full payment from us, his communications became less frequent and he continually experienced “wifi” or “internet” issues which he used as an excuse to not respond to us.
Upon discovering some bad reviews made after we booked, we followed up
With the hotels and lodges that Fortune had apparently booked for us only to find that they had not been paid for. We asked when the payment was due by and called to speak with Fortune. He “assured” us that payment would be made in full and that we could relax and just look forward to our holiday.
He never paid and with two weeks before we were due to fly out, we had to scramble to not only borrow money to cover this additional unexpected expense, we also had to find new accommodation, tours and transfers as the ones that Fortune had booked for us were way out of our price range now we had to repay for our holiday.
We have asked on numerous occasions now for a refund and of course, we have received nothing.
My advise… STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!
CA
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
You can not trust this person
I am very disappointed by this company. We arrived in Tanzania full of excitement and with the best intentions to share my adventure with local people. It is why I trusted Rewald Moshi to organize our Kilimanjaro summit.
The issues we had with Rewald and his team:
- The company doesn't accept transfers. We had to travel from Canada to Tanzania with $6000 US cash on us. After talking to many people and other companies while we were traveling in Tanzania, we learned the legitimate companies accept transfer.
- Issues in communication. We asked Rewald to add one day for acclimatization, to increase our chances of summitting Kilimanjaro. He replied thumb up on our what's app group. When we arrived we realized he didn't add the 7th day. After reading many websites saying our chance to summit will increase if we spend 7 days on the mountain (5 up 2 down, we texted Rewald asking if we could add one day, he replied yes it will be $270 per person. We paid the extra day because our goal was to summit. After 2 days on Kilimanjaro our guide told us the extra day we paid was to go down, not to go up. We were so disappointed, what is the goal to add an extra day if not to go up and take our time to acclimate. We decided not to spend 3 days going down and asked for a refund minus the salary for the guides and porters. We didn't want the team to be penalized because of the issue in our communication with Rewald. After a long conversation Rewald refunded us $70 per person. So we paid $200 for a day we didn't do just because of poor communication.
- one of the big scams on Kilimanjaro is the team adds a porter on the last day when it is time to pay the tips. We spent 6 days making sure we talked to all our team and learned the names of everyone. On the last day we were tired and when it was time to pay the tips the team sang and danced for us. While I was paying the tips I realized someone I didn't know was in the line of porters. I gave him money thinking I never saw this guy the last 6 days but I was not 100% sure so I gave him a tip (and I Trusted Baraka, our guide). We were missing one person for the tips. We were so confused and sorry for missing one so very quickly we grabbed more cash to pay an extra person. On the way back I was thinking how odd the situation was. I showed the photo of the misterious porter to the other porters asking his name and no one knew his name. When I showed to the guide, Baraka, he said it is Steve the cooks assistant but he left because he is going somewhere else tomorrow. Everyone was so uncomfortable and the energy changed. After googling we learned of the scam of the extra porters at the tips ceremony. Advice ask the name of all the team on the first day to make sure you have the same amount of people when you pay tips.
- we paid to Rewald's friend $30 to get a sim card. Not sure if it was a good price but because we lost trust in him not sure we are not sure
- no oxygen or radio on the mountain. After talking to many guides they all told us we have oxygen and radios if anything happens. Better to ask before choosing your company to make sure you will be safe on the mountain.
I am mad and disappointed by Rewald Moshi and Baraka. We trusted them and they saw us as money on legs, nothing more. I am glad we didn't do the safari and other activities with them.
Check out Tanzania Choice Safari and nomad exploration tours for a way better experience.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Complete Nightmare & worst tour operator in EAST AFRICA
This tour has been the worst tour of my life. The guide was aggressive and lying to us about park-openings, schedule etc. He turned up late 1 hour in the morning, so everyday we missed the best time of the safari. We were not briefed upon what was the schedule going to be. In the end our old car broke down and we were left without food or water in the heat. I strongly urge you to stay away from this operator. There are amazing safari companies in Kenya. This is not one of them.
FR
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Terrible experience, stay away!
I had an unacceptable experience with Okoa tour, don’t ever book with them!! They changed last minute our reservation (2 nights in the hotel planned instead of 2 and one in a new one not chosen) notifying us only at the airport when we reached. Then, Michael drop the agency started raising his voice and was so disrespectful talking to me. He tried to scam me giving me back my change after I paid (giving me less in local money). In the end, the hotel that wasn’t planned keekorok was not satisfying at all, the room was small, dirty it really affected our trip. This agency is not reliable at all please stay away!!!